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CNN Live At Daybreak

Chicagoans Love Wrigley Field

Aired July 04, 2001 - 08:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: All week, right here on CNN, we have been reporting from sites that might be included in a list of America the Beautiful. Well, a very special choice for you today, Independence Day -- you're going to love this. It's Wrigleyville, the neighborhood around the old ballpark on Chicago's north side.

Keith Oppenheim has a vantage point familiar to the Wrigley Field bleacher bums, an apartment house roof overlooking left field.

Keith, you lucky guy.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Colleen, and happy Fourth of July to you. That's right, I am actually not in Wrigley Field right now, despite what the background looks like. I'm on a rooftop called Skybox on Waveland, and this is one of numerous businesses that sell seats to watch the game outside the ballpark, perhaps the best seat you can get and not be in the ballpark, compared to another place in the United States.

And I think what's really unusual about this is that you have a relationship exemplified by where I am, between the neighborhood and the ballpark. There's also an historical relationship between this shrine of baseball and the people of Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM (voice-over): They began as the Chicago White Stockings and evolved into the Cubs. Their current home began as Weeghman Park, later purchased by chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, whose name, like a piece of gum, stuck. But it was Wrigley's, P.K. Wrigley, who sold the idea of stadium as urban park where families spent an afternoon.

RON GROSSMAN, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: He's the one who really develops that formula that you can sell the game and the park and the excursion rather than having to have a winning team.

OPPENHEIM: The famous vines lining the outfield wall are in tune with the idea of ballpark as backyard. The scoreboard is manual, old fashioned, no billboard advertising, and until 1988, no night games, no lights.

And while there have been divisional championships, it's important to remember the Cubs haven't won a pennant since 1945. JEROME HOLTZMAN, MLB HISTORIAN: I would rather have the ballpark still standing than a pennant. I've seen a lot of ballparks where they have a lot of pennants, and they are nothing compared to Wrigley Field.

OPPENHEIM: From the memories of Harry Caray leading a sing- along, to the present-day thrill of watching Sammy Sosa, Wrigley Field thrives, selling itself and its history, if not always, the success of the team.

CHIP CARAY, CUBS ANNOUNCER: It's like watching the game -- what you imagine the game would be like -- in 1930. There's a sense of innocence, a sense of returning to the roots of baseball when you come to watch a game here, and I think that's why Wrigley Field is so universally loved now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OPPENHEIM: Back live at Wrigley Field on this July Fourth morning, and the good news to report, if you're a Cubs fan -- which I am -- is that the Cubs beat the Mets at Shea last night, and they are on top of their division.

The more controversial side, though, is that the Tribune Company, which owns Wrigley Field, has an $11 million expansion plan for Wrigley Field, and that includes adding 2,300 seats, most of those bleacher seats. Again, the controversy is about night games. Currently, there are 18 night games per season here at Wrigley Field for the Cubs, and they want to increase that to 30 games. So once again, Colleen, we're talking about that tenuous relationship between the neighborhood and the ballpark.

Back to you.

MCEDWARDS: I'm sure there are a lot of people there who would argue that it's a beautiful ballpark just the way it is.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And you've been there.

MCEDWARDS: Yes, it's a great ballpark.

Thanks to Keith.

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